Tie-plate.



J. R. KELLER.

. Patented May 18, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

FIGQ 3 J. R. KELLER.

TIE PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 13, 1907. 922,150. Patented May18,1909. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. F |G.6

All

JOHN R. KELLER, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

TIE-PLATE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18, 1909.

Application filed May 13, 1907. Serial No. 373,282.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, JOHN R. KELLER, a resident of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tie-Plates; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

This invention relates to railway tie plates and its object is to provide a tie plate which is simple and cheap to manufacture, which is so constructed that it can be easily embedded in the tie and so as to prevent movement thereof on the tie, and which is provided with means whereby it will be held from rising from the tie.

Flat tie plates have not been found wholly satisfactory because of their tendency to move on the tie, thus causing the edge thereof to shear ofi the rail-holding spikes, as well as not being effective for taking the side thrust of the rails. Various forms of tie plates have been devised to prevent these dihiculties, the most approved having claws or flanges for entering the tie, and ribs or shoulders on the top face. All these special forms of plates, however, are quite difficult and ex ensive to manufacture, requiring special ro is to roll the section and further operations in forming the claws on the lower face of the tie.

JIy invention is designed to provide a tie plate which can be chea 'ly and easily shaped from an ordinary flat p ate and having all of the advantages, and several others, of the more expensive forms of plates now in use.

The invention comprises a tie plate such as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a vertical section taken transversely through the rail and tie plate and longitudinally of the tie, being taken on the line 1-1, Fig. 2; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the plate; Fig. 3 is a side edge view of the same Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44, Fig. 2 Fig. 5 is a similar view on the line 55, Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing a modified form of the plate, and Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the same.

My plate in its simplest form has a body 1 which is entirely flat, both on the top and bottom faces, and can be a section of any rolled plate of the required thickness. Consequently no special rolls are required to form the plate, but the manufacturer can buy flat plate on the open market and shear or cut it to the required size.

The plate is provided with spike receiving holes 2 preferably located diagonally on the plate and just outside of the zone of the rail base, the edges of the rail base being indicated by dotted lines 3, on Fig. 2. Through these holes will be driven spikes 4 of the usual or any preferred construction having heads 5 lapping over the base 6 of the rail, or over angle plates, as is usual in present railway practice.

Inside the edges of the rail base the plate is provided with one or more holes 8 for receiving supplemental spikes 9, two such holes being shown, preferably located diagonally on the plate in the same manner as the holes 2 for receiving the main spikes 4. The supplemental spikes 9 may be of exactly the same form as the main spikes, only smaller, or of any desired form. Preferably they will be of the standard spike form which gives maximum strength between head and shank. In order to provide space for the heads 10 of these spikes the plate is provided on its upper face with a pocket 11 adjacent to the hole or holes 8, and in order to prevent weakening the plate due to the formation of such pockets, as well as to provide shoulders or claws to enter the wood of the tie and assist the spikes 9 to prevent movement of the plate on the tie, the pockets 1.1 are formed by punching and pressing the metal downwardly, shearing the metal at one edge of the hole 8, namely, its outer edge, as shown at 12, and pressing the metal downwardly to form the pocket on its upper side located at the two sides and one end of the hole 8,and simultaneously forming the downwardly projecting protuberances 13 which provide outwardly facing shoulders 14, these protuberances entering the wood of the tie and the shoulders 14 assist the spikes 9 in preventing movement of the plate endwise of the tie under the severe side thrust of the rail. The pocket 11 provides a seat not only for the end face 15 of the spike head, but also for the side faces 16 thereof, so giving a bearing on three sides of the head and preventing undue strain on the s ike head.- The pocket or pockets 11 can e made sufficiently deep so that the spike 9 can be provided with a substantial head and yet not project above the top face of the plate.

In use the base of the rail covers the heads of the spikes 9, thus preventing them from being drawn upwardly, so said spikes 9 serve to hold the plate not only against movement on the tie, assisting the shoulders 14 in this function, but also prevent theplate from rising from the tie under the vibration of the rail. The result is that the main spikes are 5 not subjected to any shearing action due to the edge of the hole 2 working against the spike under sidewise movement of the tie plate.

' Preferably, the tie plate is also provided, at

least on one side, with an upwardly projecting shoulder or shoulders to forma bearing for the edge of the rail base, so as to relieve the main spikes 4 from the side thrusts of the rail. In the preferred form of my )li-te such upwardly projecting shoulders are formed by punching a portion of the metal outside of the rail base zone upwardly. As shown, the metal on the outside of the hole 8 is punched upwardly to form the shoulder 17 while the 20 metal adjacent to the hole 2 is also punched upwardly to form a similar shoulder 18, these shoulders facing inwardly and being in line with the edge of the rail base. This upwardly projecting metal also has the function of corrugations adjacent to the holes, thereby overcoming any weakness due to the formation of the holes in the plate. The shoulder 17 also forms a brace for the spike 5 in line with the rail base, so as to prevent side thrusts from bending said spike.

In Figs. 6 and 7 is shown a modification in which the shoulder for receivingthe thrust of the edge of the rail base is formed by a rib 19 rolled on the top face of the plate. This plate requires special forms of rolls in order to form the rib 19 while the plate shown in the other figures is a flat plate requiring no special rolls and can be purchased in the open market.

shown in Figs. 6 and 7 is similar to the pre ferred form of plate.

The preferred form of plate described is very cheap of manufacture, as it is formed from ordinary flat plate which can be bought in the open market and the shaping thereof requires merely the punching of the holes and the bending up or down of slight portions of the metal adjacent to said holes, all of which can be done at a single stroke of a suitable press. The late shown in Figs. 6 and 7 require a special rolled shape, but the finishing of it is also done by a single stroke of a press. The consequence is that the plates are very cheap to manufacture.

The plate provides not only prongs for entering the tie to hold the plate against movement, but has in addition thereto the supplemental spikes which are held down by the rail resting on top of the same and which aid in preventing movement of the plate on the tie, and also hold the plate against rising from the tie so that the pounding of the rails due to their up and down movement is expended entirely between the base of the rail and the top of the metal plate. For this In other respects the plate reason the life of the wooden tie is considerably increased. By reason of the fixed position which the plate will maintain on the tie, and the shoulders on the top face of the plate to take the side thrust of the rail, the main spikes are practically relieved .of all strain other than that due to the lifting action of the rails. The plate prongs can be easily embedded in the tie, this being effected by driving the spikes 9. 7

What I claim is: \w 4 1. A tie plate rovided outside and at the edges of the rail base zone with the usual holes for receiving'rail securing spikes and also provided with another spike receiving hole and a spike head receiving pocket in its upper face at said hole, said late having on its lower face underneath said pocket 21 protuberance for entering the tie.

2. A tie plate 7 rovided outside and at the ed es of the rail base zone with the usual holes for receiving rail securing spikes and also provided with another spike receiving hole, the metal at an edge of said last named hole being forced downwardly to form in the upper face of the plate a spike head receiving pocket and on the lower face of the plate a protuberance for entering the tie:

8 A tie plate provided within the rail base zone with a spike receiving hole and having the metal around'said hole depressed to form in its upper face a spike head receiving pocket and on its lowerface a protuberance adapted to enter the tie.

4. A tie plate provided with a spike receiving hole andjhaving the metal at said hole slit and pressed downwardly to form in its upper face a pocket for receiving a spike head, and on its lower face a prong for entering the tie.

5. A tie plate provided withinthe rail base zone with a spike receiving hole and being slit in line with the outer edge of said hole and having the metal inside of the rail base zone bent downwardly to form on the lower face of the plate outwardly facing shoulders to enter the tie, and on the upper face of the plate a pocket to receive a spike head. 7 V

6. A tie plate provided outside of the rail base zone with spike receiving holes, and inside the rail base zone with a spike receiving hole and spike head receiving pocket at said hole, said plate having on its upper face at the outer edge of said last named spike re ceiving hole a shoulder in line with the edge of the rail base.

7. A tie plate provided within the rail base zone with a spike receiving hole and having the metal at said hole pressed downwardly to form in the upper face of the plate a spike head receiving pocket, and on the lower face of the plate a projection for entering the tie, said plate having on its upper face a shoulder in line with the edge of the rail base. i I

8. A tie plate provided within the rail base p the rail base zone,

zone with a spike receiving hole and having the metal outside of the rail base adjacent to said hole pressed upwardly to form a shoulder to take the thrust of the rail base.

9. lA tie plate provided within the rail base zone with a hole and being slit in line with the outer edge of said hole and having the metal inside of the edge of the rail base pressed downwardly to form a pocket in the upper face and a rotuberance on the lower face and the meta on the outside of the rail base pressed upwardly to form a shoulder.

10. A tie plate having a spike hole outside of the rail base zone and another hole inside the metal outside the rail base zone adjacent to both holes being pressed upwardly to form shoulders and that inside of the rail base zone adjacent to the hole within the rail base zone being pressed downwardly to form a pocket in the top face and a projection on the bottom face.

11. In combination with a rail and tie, a

tie plate having a pocket in its upper face and a hole extending down from said pocket j through the plate, said plate having a prol tuberance on its lower face beneath said i pocket, and a spike adapted to be driven l through the hole into the tie and having its j head seated in the pocket in the plate. 1 12. A tie plate having a splke receiving j hole within the zone of the rail base and with l the metal at the two side edges and inner edge of said hole pressed downwardly to form a ocket in the top face and shoulders on the ottom face of the plate, said having a shoulder on its top face and eing provided with a spike receiving hole outside of the rail base zone.

In testimony whereof, I the said JOHN R. KELLER have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN R. KELLER.

\Vitnesses F. W. WINTER, JOHN F. WILL.

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